Tour Announce: An Evening With Pat Metheny heads to Auckland

AUCKLAND, NZ (Nov 6, 2019) – 20-time
Grammy Award winning guitarist, PATMETHENY, has announced “An Evening
with Pat Metheny” – a special theatre show at
Auckland Town Hall, March 10, 2020 as part of Auckland Arts
Festival.

Playing New Zealand for only the second time in
his 40-year-plus career (having previously visited in 2006),
Metheny will present a range of music from throughout his
career, joined by his long-time drummer,
AntonioSanchez,
Malaysian/Australian bassist LindaMayHanOh and British pianist
GwilymSimcock.

Of the
forthcoming shows, Metheny says:

“It could really be
anything and everything. I have already written a bunch of
new music which we recorded and will be released early 2020,
inspired just by the thought of this presentation, but I
could also imagine playing only old music one night. I like
the idea of keeping it open and letting it become whatever
it winds up being over the course of a tour.

“At this
stage, I have so much music and it all is kind of one big
thing for me without borders or distinctions between this
period or that period. With Antonio, Linda and Gwilym, I
think we could and will do a wide range of things from
throughout all of it - and maybe uncover what the next
period has in store as well.”

Tickets go on
sale at 12pm Monday, November 11.

Fan club members can be
among the first to secure tickets during the pre-sale
beginning at 12pm Friday, November 8.

My Live Nation
members can be among the first to secure tickets during the
pre-sale beginning at 12pm Friday, November 8.

Pat Metheny first
burst onto the international jazz scene in 1974 displaying
his soon-to-become trademarked playing style, which blended
the loose and flexible articulation customarily reserved for
horn players with an advanced rhythmic and harmonic
sensibility - a way of playing and improvising that was
modern in conception but grounded deeply in the jazz
tradition of melody, swing and the blues. With the release
of his first album, Bright Size Life (1975), he
reinvented the traditional "jazz guitar" sound for a new
generation of players.

Inducted into the Downbeat Hall of
Fame in 2015 as its youngest-ever member and only the fourth
guitarist (joining Django Reinhardt, Charlie Christian and
Wes Montgomery), Metheny has throughout his career continued
to redefine the genre by utilizing new technology and
constantly working to evolve the improvisational and sonic
potential of his instrument.

Metheny has spent much of
his life on tour, often doing more than 100 shows a year
since becoming a bandleader in the 70s. He continues to be
one of the brightest stars of the music scenes
today.

Joining
Pat Metheny will be his long-time drummer Antonio
Sanchez who has been his most consistent associate
in a huge variety of settings since 2000. “Antonio is
always incredible. He is one of the greatest drummers of all
time and the fact that we have been able to share so much
music together over these years is something really special
for both of us. And I am so proud of all his recent
successes with the “Birdman” score.” Antonio’s score
for the Oscar winning Alejandro G. Innaritu film was
nominated for a Golden Globe and 2016 Grammy Award as well
as dozens of other prizes around the world. Metheny goes on
to say “Being on the bandstand with Antonio is like
nothing else I have ever experienced with any other
musician. He has the capacity to listen and be inside the
music with an intensity that is unique. That focus, combined
with his truly otherworldly skills on the kit puts him his
own category.”

Malaysian/Australian bassist
Linda May Han Oh has been extremely active
on the New York scene for the past few years, playing with
many of the major musicians in the community. Metheny
continues, “I love to follow who the new players around
town are and I go out often to check out what everyone is
doing. The first time I heard Linda, she immediately went to
the top of my list of candidates. She has everything I
always am looking for; great time, great notes and a lot of
imagination. But the most important thing I am always
searching for in any musician is an elusive and hard to
describe quality that embodies a certain communicative
ability to connect - not just to the other musicians, but to
the audience as well. Linda has that. When we got together,
she was so easy to play with. She went on to tell me how
much she had been affected as a young player by my record
Question and Answer and a few others, which is incredibly
gratifying for me. I am really excited to get the chance to
play with Linda.”

Rounding out the ensemble is British
pianist Gwilym Simcock, one of the most
exciting new pianists to emerge from the UK in many years.
Metheny: “I first heard about Gwilym on a trip to London a
few years back when someone at a radio station gave me his
debut record while mentioning to me that he had often spoken
of his interest in this music having been sparked by his
exposure to one of my early records, again one of the most
flattering things imaginable. When I listened to his CD, I
became an instant fan; Gwilym is simply one of the best
piano players I have heard in a long, long time. After
trying to find time to get together over a number of years,
in 2014 I was finally able to stay over after a gig in
London to do some playing. We had planned on getting
together for a few hours or so but wound up playing
continuously for an entire afternoon. It was absolutely
incredible what we were able to get to so quickly. I have
only ever had that kind of communication and ease of playing
with another musician a handful of times over the years to
that degree. I am so excited to get the chance to play with
Gwilym and there seems to be enormous potential there for us
to develop a really unique way of playing together.”

Join the Scoop Citizen Community

20 years of independent publishing is a milestone, but your support is essential to keep Scoop thriving. We are building on our offering with thedig.nz our new In-depth Engaged Journalism platform. Now, more than ever sustainable financial support of the Scoop Foundation for Public Interest Journalism will help to keep these vital and participatory media services running.
Find out more and join us:

New Zealanders can enjoy two free live-streamed performances by their national orchestra this month, beginning with Beethoven’s beloved Fifth Symphony . The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra will play the “da-da-da-dah” masterpiece live on stage from ... More>>

Te Awahou Nieuwe Stroom is open again for visitors. And the first thing people will see when they walk into the gallery is a stunning image of the Matariki star cluster – part of a deep space photo exhibition. More>>